For the second year running, Scoil Mhuire won a national award for Creative Schools. The award was made to Scoil Mhuire teacher, Helen Ní Ailíosa, for a project carried out with Fourth class and their teacher Máire Breatnach. The award ceremony was held in the Ark Cultural Centre for Children, Temple Bar, Dublin on Monday May 20th. The award was presented by Senator David Norris on behalf of the Association for Creativity and Arts in Education. The ACAE Creative Schools award initiative encourages imaginative teaching and learning in Irish classrooms and operates under the auspices of the Department of Education and Skills.
Senator David Norris presents the Creative
School Award to Helen, Iníon Uí Ailíosa
Twenty nine Fourth class students worked for two months on a cross-curricular Drama, ICT and History project based on the local Gunpowder Mills. The Mills provided the British Army with gunpowder during the early 19th century and especially during the Napoleonic wars. The students devised a story about two young boys who went to war and who ended up fighting at the Battle of Waterloo on Sunday, June 18th, 1815. The story also tracks the story of a barrel of gunpowder from the Ballincollig mills. Other characters in the drama included coopers, Mills owners, Red Coat soldiers, Napoleon and his wife
Josephine. The script was co-devised in the classroom and the action was photographed mainly on location at the Gunpowder Mills site in April.
Last year, Scoil Mhuire was one of the first schools in Ireland to receive this prestigious award from the ACAE. They created a 15 minute drama based on the story of the Titanic. This drama went on to win a top award of 1,000 euro at Feis Maitiú. The Association for Creativity and Arts in Education has, as its patron, Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland.
